


How Could She?

by sweetpeaspodsquad



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Hanahaki Disease, Southside's Gems, Sweet Pea's Pod Squad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-25 04:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14370558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetpeaspodsquad/pseuds/sweetpeaspodsquad
Summary: Smile though your heart is aching.Smile even though it's breaking.





	How Could She?

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kneeshee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kneeshee/gifts).



_Sweet Pea stood back against the wall watching as his “sisters” danced on the floor. His eyes flickered over each of them and he wore a small smile at the sight of them. Though his brow furrowed a second later when he didn’t see his favorite gemstone._

_He turned his head to the side when he felt someone come stand beside him, and there she was. Sapphire. She looked up at him with a bright smile. Her eyes sparkled like the diamond resting around her neck._

_“Come dance with me, SP,” she pleaded. The pout she wore only served to make her look younger than she was. He flicked his gaze over her face and could see the love she held for him in her expression. He felt a flicker of guilt for the pain and hurt that was sure to appear before it went away because she knew how he felt for her. Just like he knew how she felt about him._

_“I can’t do that, Princess. You know I’m waiting on Jazz.”_

_And there it was. The flicker of hurt and pain. The way her smile tightened before she smoothed her features out in the way only she could do. To where it wasn’t Saph no longer standing in front of him, but the untouchable Sapphire Stone, heir to Stone Industries._

_“Right. Well, hope you have a good time.”_

_He watched her turn away from him and watched as she moved back towards the dance floor. Watched as she let her jacket fall in the lap of one of her den members grasp. Watched as she let her hair down. And he watched as she tried to force herself to forget him even if it were only for a few moments._

_He made himself turn around before the guilt he felt tore him apart. Sure, he didn’t feel the same way, but she was still like a sister to him. He couldn’t imagine life without her by his side. He saw Jazz heading back towards him, but he pushed himself off the wall and headed towards her. He casually slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her into one of the back rooms._

_All the while he ignored the heavy gaze of a breaking heart staring after him._

_\--_

Sapphire working the bar at the Whyte Worm when it started. An intense burning feeling grew in her lungs and she stumbled back from the force of it. She vaguely noticed Toni turning towards her, but Sapphire was mostly distracted by the sensation in her chest. She pounded on her chest to get whatever what stuck out yet when it did, the only thing she wanted more than anything was for it to disappear.

Especially since it was obvious exactly what it was… a sweet pea flower.

“Holy shit.”

\--

_Sapphire had always known that she was in love with Sweet Pea. How could she not be? It was like every time she looked at him she felt breathless. When she realized that she had started to take the walls up around her heart back down. When she realizes that she would let him do anything or do anything for him even if it hurt her. When no matter how what state he was in, she could only see a person that makes her feel like nothing else in the world matters._

_He was her safe haven, and she’s not afraid to admit that she relies heavily on him. If Toni was her best female friend, then Sweet Pea was her best guy friend. And she could admit to herself that she wanted more. That she wanted to be the girl wrapped in his arms and smiling up at him._

_She thought she had a good hold on her emotions especially since it seemed like he didn’t like in her that way. When it seemed that he only saw her as a sister figure instead of a love interest. She can admit that it hurts._ _She knows he’s done some shitty things. Getting her to ask other girls out for him or that time he took her bike to Tiana’s house to go fuck. But she still couldn’t see herself with anyone but him._

_He really had her looking in the mirror staring at her reflection thinking she was flawed because why didn’t he feel the same? But Sapphire was a big girl, so she pushed down her feelings and ignored them no matter how much it killed her to._

_And now it was really killing her._

\--

Days went by and Sapphire could feel the roots and branches making a home of her lungs and heart. Each day a new flower petal erupted from her lungs, and she did nothing to stop them. She didn’t want to.

Toni and Joaquin begged her to get the surgery. Begged her to have the branches removed. But she couldn’t. She didn’t want to. How she could not love him?

Everything around her was a mess. She was coughing up so many petals nowadays that she had to miss school. Honestly, she only saw four people on a day to day basis. FP, Toni, her brother, and her cousin Sonja. They crowded around her holding her as petal after petal escaped her.

But she still couldn’t get that surgery. Sweet Pea made her heart sing and obviously he made flowers boom inside of her heart. Even as she laid awake at night delirious through the pain, she only paid attention to the memories she had with him. Whatever the road is, she wanted to cross it with him. Even now as she was slowly dying, she would choose him repeatedly. The warm embrace of his skin, the soft glow in his eyes, the soothing rumble of his voice and his contagious smile. She would choose it over any heaven. Any paradise. She’d choose death repeatedly if she could never forget how these emotions felt.

And even though she knew he’d never love her the same, she also knew that love was a wonderful feeling and so is the pain that comes with it.

\--

Sweet Pea had been playing pool when he found out. Sapphire had hanahaki disease and it didn’t take a second guess to figure out just who the reason behind her suffering was even if the flower in her hand wasn’t a clue. He had turned around to look at the bar when he heard Toni scream out Sapphire’s name. He had pushed his way through the crowd to get nearer when he saw her on the crowd. She looked beautiful even if she did look seconds away from death and in another world, he might have loved her the way she needed him to. The way the flower that emerged from her esophagus demand him to.

But he couldn’t. To him, she was just like Toni. Just like Emerald. Just like Emilia. Just like Camille. Just like Jade. She was his little sister in all but blood, and he couldn’t see her any other way.

“Holy shit,” she stated.

Yeah, holy shit indeed.

\--

It didn’t take long for people to come yell at him. To convince her to get the surgery. To demand that he fix it. As if he could just conjure feelings up. As if anything did he would do wouldn’t hurt her further. He was too scared to go see her for that exact reason.

He stared at his reflection everyday wondering what about him made her fall in love with him. What was so special about him that she wouldn’t get the surgery that would save her life? He could admit that he was good looking guy and he had a good heart. But he had flaws just like the next person. Flaws that Sapphire had seen firsthand. So how could she love him when he wasn’t right for her?

He heard from Emilia who heard from Toni that Sapphire’s humor had took a morbid turn. At least to everyone else. She had the flowers she coughed up cleaned and plucked beautifully and filled her room with flower crowns or floral bracelets.

“This is all your fault, you pendejo! De todas las personas, ella tenía que irse y enamorarse de ti. Eres bueno para nada hijo de puta,” was all he heard before fists began attacking him. It took him a minute to catch the fists hitting him not before a handful had already bruised his chest. Sapphire’s cousin, Sonja, was still crying and desperately punching at his chest and cursing him in spanish.

“What do you want me to do, Sonja? Huh! I can’t love her that way. I don’t see her that way. Would you rather me lie to her only for her to find out the truth and the branches grow with a vengeance? Do you think I want her to feel this way? Huh? I would rather her hate me with down to the very last atom in her body than to be lying quite literally on her death bed!”

“BECAUSE EVERYTHING IS ALL ABOUT YOU ISN'T IT!! DID YOU THINK ABOUT HOW I FEEL SWEET PEA? I'M ABOUT TO LOSE THE LAST MEMBER OF MY BIOLOGICAL FAMILY BECAUSE OF SOME ASSHOLE WITH AN ATTITUDE PROBLEM!”

 She snatched away from him and stormed off and he watched her go. He watched as she walked Sapphire’s locker where people had placed even more flowers in front of. He found it heartbreaking that someone had actually put sweet pea flowers in front of them. As if she wasn’t coughing up enough to fill a flower shop. As if he wasn’t feeling guilty as it was.

He watched as Sonja stopped in front of the lockers where someone had tapped a picture of Sapphire. He watched as she broke down right in front of the lockers and he watched as her adopted brother, Joaquin, embraced her as tears streamed down his face also.

Sweet Pea turned and left the school. He headed right for the Whyte Worm where he hoped to let some of his aggression out in a game of pool or to drown his sorrows out in some bottles.

He was shooting some practice shots when he felt someone come up behind him. Sweet Pea took a shot and the ball missed. Just like the feelings he couldn’t conjure up for her.

“Coming to scream at me too,” Sweet Pea mumbled bitterly. He heard a scoff and them moving around before another pool stick appeared in his vision.

“No, I’m coming to check on you because I know this has to be hard on you too,” Fangs replied as Sweet Pea moved to set the game up.

“I just don’t understand why she won’t get the surgery,” he growled frustration coloring his tone. “I’m not worth her dying over.” 

Fangs hummed, “Obviously to her, you are. Saph has always loved you, dude. Getting some flowers removed won’t change that.”

“Yeah, but with the flowers gone, so will the feelings?”

“And can you handle that,” Fangs suddenly asked looking Sweet Pea in the eye. “You know the surgery can always back fire and take away all of her feelings towards you. Would you be able to handle the emotionless expression she’d wear around you? How before she’d laugh at your jokes or how her smile lit up the room whenever you were near? You say you see her as a sister, but how would you feel if she saw you as nothing? Everything would be gone. The adoration. The love. The hate. The pain. Would you be able to live with that?”

Fangs didn’t say anything else as he placed the pool stick on the table and walked away leaving Sweet Pea with his thoughts.

And well he decided it was time to man up and go see Sapphire. He needed her to have this surgery just like he needed her in his life.

\--

She was beautiful even as she was dying. She wore a flower crown on top of her head as she looked at him with wide eyes. There were dark bags under her eyes that hinted at the sleepless nights she was having. There were flowers across the room. Some with specks of blood on them and some without. Flowers crowns and bracelets littered the floor. It was as if someone played an endless game of “he/she loves-he/she loves not”… except it kind of was and Sapphire was suffering in the worse the loss in the worst way possible.

He watched with a guilty heart as a smile lit up her face, and he couldn’t understand how she could be smiling when she wasn’t far from having branches piercing her heart.

“I knew you would come,” she stated. Her voice was raspy from the air that she could breathe in. From the damage done to her throat from all of the excessive coughing that she was doing. “I knew that peace wouldn’t come to me without seeing you again.”

Sweet Pea stared at her with tears in his eyes. He couldn’t love her as she needed, but he did love her as a sister. She was family, and he didn’t want to see her die. He couldn’t see her die and know that he was the reason.

“Princess, please get the surgery. If you love me like you say you do, then you would get the surgery. _Please_.”

She only looked at him with a soft smile on her face. The love in her eyes overpowered the pain she was feeling radiating through her chest. Here he was pleading for her to get a surgery because he didn’t want to see her die? How could she get the surgery when he did things like this? Besides, she could feel the branches growing rapidly. She knew that it was far too late to get the surgery now. She had already been tipping on the edge of being unable to. She also knew his presence was fueling it faster. But she didn’t care. What was a little pain to true love? She was adamant that their love was eternal. Like Sasuke and Sakura. Like Leo and Piper. Like Elena and Damon. Like Naruto and Hinata. Like Bella and Edward. They had only needed more time and he would’ve understood, but time was a fickle thing.

She knew she would wait for him. She could patient. That’s why she continued to smile adoringly at even as the branches grew faster in her lungs and pierced her heart. It was the perfect way for her to welcome eternity. Knowing that the last thing she saw was the who held her heart so tightly in his grasp that it was unavoidable that it was squeeze until her love flowed freely.

\--

The sun shined brightly as if welcoming her home after so many years alone. They lowered her into the plot between her parents. Wrapped in their eternal embrace. A smile was on her face and she held a bouquet of flowers in her hands.

A bouquet of sweet peas.


End file.
